Thank you, Francisco, for drawing my attention today to the Jesuit Juan Masiá’s article in the last issue of the Catholic weekly Vida Nueva on a theme that has always interested me as it fully engaged my attention in India. The translation of the Bible and the liturgical books into other languages. He speaks authoritatively about Japanese. I quote from his article:

“The Japanese version of the Mass has not been approved by the Roman Curia even after three decades, and is still in its provisional state. The negotiations have got stuck in such minor points as the following:

In Japan we just bow to the altar at the beginning of the Mass. To kiss the altar would be bad manners. We do not put our lips to the tablecloth at meals. Hands joined and bowed head show our respect better. But the Curia insists on the kiss.

The Latin answer “And with your spirit” to “The Lord be with you” sounds in Japanese as “with your ghost”, but again the Curia insists on the “spirit”.

In Japanese we say, “I recognise my faults”, and to say it once is enough, but the Curia insists on us saying “through my fault” three times, with “through my most grievous fault” at the end.

The Japanese expression “I believe in the resurrection of the body” refers by itself to the whole person; but the Curia insists in saying “the resurrection of the flesh”, which sounds vulgar in Japanese.

We can understand the perplexity of the Japanese Church before this attitude, and our worry at what seems going back from what had been achieved at the Vatican Council.”

(Vida Nueva, 7.3.2008, p. 18) 

My own experience was more amusing. The bishop of Ahmedabad entrusted to me the translation of the canon of the Mass from Latin into Gujarati when the first permission for translations came from Rome. I did it, not without inspiration. But translations of liturgical texts had to be approved by Rome. My translation was duly sent there. The problem was that nobody knew Gujarati in Rome. So they sent back my Gujarati translation to our bishop, requesting him to have it translated back into Latin by somebody in India. Father Pariza, known among us for his wisdom and his sanctity, accepted the task and did it painstakingly. His Latin translation of my Gujarati translation was sent to Rome, and my Gujarati translation was approved. Today it is devoutly said in the Gujarati Mass. I told the bishop that, when he was asked from Rome to send there the Latin translation of my Gujarati text, he should have sent them the original text from the Latin missal. He laughed, but he did not dare.